The following google search... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS218US224&q=%22alter+session%22+dump+data+blocks&btnG=Search ... found several methods for dumping blocks with 'alter sesssion'; http://www.ixora.com.au/scripts/sql/dump.sql http://bbs.erp100.com/archiver/tid-10972.html ... Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Newman, Christopher <cjnewman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote: > Pete Finnigan recently (yesterday) wrote a blog entry regarding > instrumentation and security > (http://www.petefinnigan.com/weblog/entries/index.html) . In one > section it states "...Imagine that most users have the ALTER SESSION > system privilege and therefore they can dump data blocks; imagine that > we have secure some data in the table using VPD; this same method allows > bypass of VPD." > > It was my understanding that ALTER SYSTEM was needed to dump blocks, > *not* ALTER SESSION. Can anyone clarify? > > Thanks - Chris > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > >